THE PRINCE OF TIME
by Ludwig K
Summary: A demigod born with the power to slay the gods, A forgotten sword with the power to end it all, Both sides united against a common foe, signalling the end of the world we know. After hearing these words Zeus/Jupiter orders the gods to slay their children.
1. The War God's assault

**The Prince of time**

Annabeth chase fell towards the ground, the wind howling around her. A few seconds ago, she had found herself enjoying the peace and comfort offered to first class passengers, especially because of the fact that she had been placed next to the cutest boy she had ever seen. Of course, the missing Percy Jackson was still the only boy on her mind, but even annabeth was allowed to flirt with a guy every now and then. That was until that very same boy had turned out to be Ares, greek god of war, violence and bloodshed. For some unknown reason, Ares had then attacked her claiming that killing her was the best way for him to acquire his revenge, but attempting to kill the head councillor of the Athena cabin was no easy feat as annabeth dodged a spear thrust which tore open the plane and decided to jump out of the plane so as to make sure that no-one else would end up getting hurt because of her fight with the war god. Now freefalling towards the ground, Annabeth allowed herself a momentary look behind her and cursed as the war god flew towards her, a vicious grin fixed across his face.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get," muttered annabeth silently as she spread both her arms and legs out wide to slow her descent and quickly withdrew the knife strapped across her back.

Ares laughed as he finally caught up to her and began thrusting madly at annabeth. Annabeth on the other hand attempted to strike back but the short reach of her knife was simply not enough and annabeth was forced to dodge around using the knife as a shield. The London skyline loomed directly below her and annabeth momentarily wondered what some of the mortals below would say if a 17 year old girl suddenly crashed onto the road.

"You are going to die daughter of Athena, and I shall bring your corpse to Athena herself and tear it to shreds before her very eyes," annabeth heard ares shout before wondering what she'd done to anger him in the first place.

With the ground quickly racing towards her and with Ares's spear thrust's getting closer and closer to hitting her, Annabeth did the only thing any demigod in need of help could do, she closed her eyes and prayed to her godly mother for help. Of course closing your eyes in front of a war god trying to kill you isn't the smartest of things to do as Ares quickly used that opportunity to smack her across the face, sending annabeth freefalling towards the ground at an even greater speed than before. Annabeth opened her eyes and felt a sudden warmth enveloping her, strengthening her. She then looked at her knife which began to glow with a soft gray colour and spun in midair so that her back would be facing the ground and so that she would be facing ares. Annabeth smiled at a confused ares and threw her knife towards him. The knife streaked towards ares leaving a golden trail of light as it tore through the air. Ares summoned a black shield out of thin air and placed it in front of him, but the knife tore through the shield as though the shield was made out of paper before impaling ares directly below his right eye. Ares roared out in pain, his roar creating a colossal shockwave destroying the windows of nearly every single building in the vicinity. Annabeth was sent crashing into the river Thames and attempted to swim but swimming in the river felt like trying to swim through quicksand. Eventually Annabeth found herself running out of breath and began drowning because of the lack of air. Yet moments before drowning, Annabeth caught sight of a boy swimming towards her at incredible speeds. He wore a purple shirt and his eyes shone brightly like pearls in the sea.

"Hold on," said the boy calmly as though speaking underwater was no extraordinary feat at all.

Annabeth attempted to stay awake as best as possible, but the lack of air proved too much for her to bear and a wave of darkness slowly washed over her.


	2. The Lost Hero

**The lost hero**

Annabeth chase woke up inside a tent and found herself staring at an unfamiliar face.

"Where am I?" she asked a woman, dressed in a white hospital gown and holding a small torch, no bigger than a pen in her hand.

"You're among friends," replied the woman as Annabeth sat up.

Rows of white beds had outlined the gigantic tent, forming a rectangular-like shape around the tent. Some of the beds wear currently occupied with heavily bandaged individuals whilst others were empty but covered with dry blood.

"Where am I?" repeated Annabeth, reaching for her knife before remembering her encounter with Ares.

"You are at the roman camp," replied the woman, "how are you feeling?"

"Roman camp?" repeated Annabeth in shock.

After all, less than a year ago Jason Grace had arrived at camp half-blood and a few days later, after his quest to save Hera, it had been discovered that Hera had taken Jason from the roman camp and exchanged him with Percy Jackson, camp half-blood's greatest hero and to Annabeth, the world's greatest boyfriend.

"I'm at the roman camp?"

"That's right," replied the woman before taking a look at Annabeth's cheek and nodding satisfyingly before whistling three times.

As soon as she whistled, two teenagers armed with spears and gigantic roman shields entered the tent and pointed their spears at Annabeth.

"Get up," one of the teens ordered violently.

Annabeth ignored the order, instead thinking of the possibilities of meeting Percy here, at the camp.

"I said get up," shouted the teenager, pointing the tip of his spear at Annabeth.

Annabeth stared at him, having already created at least 50 plans to knock both teens and escape unharmed, but the thought of fighting of a dozen of these teens placed her plans on hold and Annabeth slowly stood up and walked out of the tent followed by the two roman demigods.

Standing directly outside of the tent stood at least 25 roman demigods, each wearing a purple t-shirt and each armed with spears and shields. Annabeth silently praised herself for choosing not to knock out the two demigods who had entered the tent as the 25 other roman demigods would have surely killed her.

"Well, well, well," came a voice from her right.

Annabeth turned to her right and found herself staring at 17 to 18 year old with cold features and jet black hair. He was dressed in a purple t-shirt which he carefully covered with an ocean blue jacket. His eyes were blood red and Annabeth felt as though she would soon collapse simply by staring at those emotionless, red eyes.

"Your name?" he asked coldly.

"Annabeth chase."

"How did you get in here?"

"I, I don't know."

"Why are you here?"

"I don't know," replied Annabeth.

Somehow, this demigod's eyes seemed to have the same effect on her as the children of Aphrodite's charmspeaking ability.

"Where did you come from?"

"Camp half-blood," she replied unwillingly.

"This is getting interesting," muttered the demigod, "now I believe you know of the great prophecy which was given before Jupiter ordered the gods to wipe out their children correct?"

"Yes," replied Annabeth, her mind trying to make sense of what she'd just heard.

Jupiter, the roman counterpart of Zeus, King of the gods ordering the gods to wipe out their children, was that perhaps the reason which had led Ares the god of war to attack her.

"Now my next question is very straightforward," began the demigod, "how many of the seven chosen demigods does camp half-blood possess?"

Annabeth took notice of how none of the demigods surrounding her at been surprised at the mention of camp half-blood, as though they had known about the Greek camp from the beginning.

"We have Leo Valdez, the fire wielder and son of Hephaestus, we have Piper McLean, charmspeaker and daughter of Aphrodite and finally we have..."

Annabeth bit her lip to stop herself from mentioning Jason, but her efforts were in vain and she said, "Finally we have Jason Grace−"

"Grace!" repeated the red eyed demigod in rage.

"So they do have Jason," said one of the demigods, "Sloan, this is what we've been waiting for, let's go tell Lupa right away."

The other demigods cheered in agreement.

"No," barked Sloan, the red eyed demigod and the other demigods went silent.

"I can't have that stupid wolf goddess ruin my plans," muttered Sloan, "as long as Jason is absent, I'll remain chief centurion of the roman camp, meaning I control our armies as I see fit."

Sloan then looked up at the sky expectantly, as though expecting something to happen but nothing happened.

"Fine, I don't need your help anyways," muttered Sloan angrily before turning towards the other demigods, "take her to the coliseum and feed her to the hellhounds," he ordered, "before Perseus Jackson finds her and attempts to stop us."

Annabeth wanted to scream at the sound of Percy's name but Sloan's control over her hadn't ceased and Annabeth found herself walking towards a giant structure which loomed in the distance.


	3. The Coliseum

**The Coliseum**

The coliseum stood as a gigantic menacing structure already packed with male and female demigods alike.

_Barbarians _thought Annabeth as she stood at the centre of the coliseum.

Weapons littered the floor from swords and shields to guns and rifles. As well as that, the stench of death hung in the air and the sound of demigod voices echoing around the arena was deafening.

Sloan sat on a throne-like seat, flanked by two demigods who didn't seem at all too happy with their current jobs and occasionally complained but one look from Sloane was enough to silence the two. Eventually, Sloane rose from his seat and lifted a fist into the air. Every demigod in the air immediately went silent.

"Fellow demigods," commenced Sloan, giving a speech to his fellow brethren which lasted an eternity.

Whilst he spoke, Annabeth picked up as many knives as possible and hunted the ground for a good sword although the best sword she found was a blunt sword. Whilst searching for a sword, she also came to the conclusion that whilst half of the roman demigods seemed to willingly follow Sloan's every order, the other half seemed more reluctant to do so and seemed under Sloan's control simply because of his charmspeaking-like ability. Sloan took notice of Annabeth searching for a weapon and dropped his fist, a motion which was followed by the sound of over a thousand demigods roaring for blood.

Annabeth held the blunt sword in front of her, waiting for the steel gates around her to be released but none of the gates were in fact released. Annabeth relaxed a little, wondering if the mechanism for the gates had stopped functioning and throwing the blunt sword on the ground. The first attack came from the right, a hellhound exploded out of the ground and rammed into her. Annabeth fell and the hellhound ran and leaped in the air towards her. Annabeth threw a knife at the hellhound who immediately turned into dust. She stood and another hellhound leaped towards her but this time Annabeth was prepared. She sidestepped out of the hellhound's way at the last moment and stabbed it on the head. She then turned around and threw her knife at another hellhound which quickly turned into the dust.

_So they only attack from behind _thought Annabeth as she easily stabbed, dodged and pierced the hellhounds, turning them into dust as quickly as they came.

She thought them for what felt like a lifetime, eventually running out of weapons and having to fight with her bare hands, but she thought until the remaining hellhounds dared not attack her anymore and retreated to the underworld from whence they came.

Tired and bloodied, Annabeth walked triumphantly towards the centre of the arena, walking with a slight limp and a nasty bite on her left arm.

"Is that the best you can do?" she shouted arrogantly, "I could have taken out a 100 more in my sleep."

Some of the demigods cheered her on and Sloan clenched his fist in anger.

"Fine, "he shouted over the voices of his comrades, "if you want more, I'll give you more."

He signalled for something and about 50 roman demigods, dressed in armour from head to toe jumped down into the arena, each armed with shields, spears and swords.

Annabeth took a step backwards and tripped over a sword hilt, falling onto her back whilst the demigods advanced towards her. She watched helplessly, knowing that in her current condition and against so many armed demigods, her chances of survival had been reduced to zero.

"Any last words?" asked one of the demigods in front of her.

There was a blur of movement from her left and a teen dressed in a torn purple shirt stood in front of her. He had brown skin and his hair had been braided into cornrows. Even by looking at his back, Annabeth could see the many cuts and lacerations littering his body, in fact some of the cuts were still bleeding. At the sight of the teen, the entire arena went silent as though his arrival signalled the beginning of something.

"Is this any way to treat a guest in my absence, Sloan?"

Sloan hesitated and Annabeth so fear in his cold, red eyes.

"That girl is an enemy of the camp, she is no guest," replied Sloan.

"Son of Pluto, you will do as you are told," shouted the teen in a commanding voice, "Lupa left the both of us in command, I get set on one quest and this is what you become."

_Pluto _thought Annabeth, _the roman counterpart of Hades, I should have known_.

"Shut up," shouted Sloan, "I am a child of the big three and I have been claimed whilst you remain unclaimed, how dare that stupid wolf goddess place me in command with such filth."

Sloan stood up from his seat.

"In fact," he continued, "if it weren't for you and that stupidprophecy, the gods wouldn't have sentenced us all to die at their hands."

The black teen stared at the ground in shame and Sloan shouted, "Kill them, kill the both of them."

The other demigods hesitated, staring at the unarmed teen in front of them as though he represented a bigger threat than Sloan but eventually, they attacked along with a dozen hellhounds. The teen in front of Annabeth simply stood there in shame as though willing to allow himself to be killed.

"Hey," shouted Annabeth to grab the teen's attention.

He turned around and noticed two hellhounds running towards her. Annabeth noticed them two as the teen began running towards her but at this distance, the hellhounds would reach her before the teen himself, yet somehow the teen ended up reaching her before the hellhound with unbelievable speed.

_No not speed, _Annabeth thought as she corrected herself, _it looked more like time slowed down and allowed him to reach me before the hellhounds_.

The teen shielded her from the hellhounds and as soon as they touched his skin, they exploded into dust. Annabeth was momentarily blinded by the ash around her but when she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the teen. He had handsome features and a good build, reminding her of Charles Beckendorf. From this distance, Annabeth noticed the numerous cuts and bruises on his face. She wondered what sort of quest this teen had been sent on and what exactly this single unclaimed demigod could have gone, which would have incited the gods to sentence their children to die at their godly hands.

"Thanks for that," he told her and Annabeth noticed steam emanating from his body, "I'm Lance Cromwell."

"Annabeth Chase," replied Annabeth, "but this is no time for introductions."

"Indeed, it isn't," said Lance as he helped Annabeth stand up.

Immediately after, a demigod from the crowd threw a bottle of water towards the centre of the arena. The bottle landed on the ground in between Lance, Annabeth and the 50 demigods advancing towards them. At the sight of the bottle, Lance immediately shielded Annabeth from the bottle, a gesture which seemed strange to Annabeth at first, but made sense as the bottle exploded, releasing a vast amount of water. The water expanded to such a vast amount that horses made out of water began circling the arena before ramming into the armed demigods, sending them flying into the arena walls. Annabeth realised that both her and lance were unharmed even though they'd been at the centre of the attack. She momentarily wondered how lance could protect her without harm to himself whilst his body was covered with cuts and bruises.

"Took your time," said lance as he staggered forward but Annabeth caught him.

Annabeth turned around to see who lance had been talking to and found herself staring at a male, dressed in an orange camp half-blood t-shirt. He had a wicked grin on his face and held the sword riptide in his left hand.

"Seaweed brain," whispered Annabeth as lance pushed her towards Percy.

"Have we met?" asked Percy confused as Annabeth realised with sadness that just as Hera had wiped away Jason's memories for his own protection before arriving at camp half-blood, she must have done the same to Percy.

Suddenly, Percy leaned in close and kissed her passionately on the lips.

"Now if I didn't remember anything, do you really think I'd have changed into my old camp half-blood t-shirt," he said with a smile as tears began to flow from her eyes.

"I'll make him pay for hurting you," said Percy angrily as Sloan shouted the word "drakons."

Three drakons erupted from the ground. They looked like dragons minus the wings but a million times stronger considering these had been summoned directly from the underworld.

"Percy I−"

"−It's okay Annabeth," replied Percy who felt as though seeing Annabeth awake again after saving her from drowning in the river was a dream come true, "right now, I just want to hug you tightly and tell you everything that's happened to me but I can't until I get you to safety, just be patient," he said as he kissed her again and whispered, "Dakota, protect her with your life."

A short, auburn haired girl appeared out of thin air and grabbed Annabeth. Annabeth didn't want to release Percy, but with the curse of Achilles protecting him, she had nothing to worry about. The auburn haired closed her eyes and Annabeth found herself sitting amongst the crowd with other armoured demigods. Some of these demigods immediately dropped their weapons and began tending to her injuries whilst others held off Sloan's demigods.

"Will that lance boy be alright on his own?" asked Annabeth struggling to keep her emotions in check after recently seeing Percy again, "I mean, I know Percy has the curse of Achilles−"

"−He lost that ages ago," cut in Dakota, "but he'll be fine, drakons shouldn't be a match for both Percy and Lance."

Annabeth was still worried about Percy but the tone of confidence in Dakota's voice made her feel better.

"What's so special about this lance?" she asked as one of the demigods began healing the bite on her left hand.

"You remember the first great prophecy right?"

Annabeth remembered the war with Cronos and how Luke had sacrificed himself to save them all.

"Yes, I remember," she replied.

"Well, a second great prophecy was given soon after," said Dakota.

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death," replied Annabeth.

"Yeah, that was the third great prophecy, Apollo himself came to Lupa and told her the secret second great prophecy, but eventually Jupiter found out about it and ordered all of the gods to kill the demigods."

"But, Sloan blamed everything on Lance."

"Because," began Dakota, "the second great prophecy is this, A demigod born with the power to slay the gods, A forgotten sword with the power to end it all, Both sides united against a common foe, signalling the end of the world we know."

Annabeth took a moment to take this all in.

"Lance went on a quest with Percy a few days ago and was challenged by Mars, the roman counterpart of Ares, Mars revealed his true godly form to lance but lance was still able to kill him with his bare hands, marking the beginning of the second great prophecy, the death of mars sent Jupiter and Juno in an outrage and both saw Lance as a flawed, unclaimed demigod and ordered him to be killed," Dakota paused for a moment before continuing, "though unclaimed, Lance was brought here at a young age and Lupa treats him like her son, so she refused to hand Lance over and as punishment, Jupiter ordered the gods to destroy the demigods."

"This doesn't make any sense," replied Annabeth, "the gods are powerful enough to wipe out the demigods in an instant, so why haven't they done so already?"  
>"Because the second part of the great prophecy was achieved, <em>a forgotten sword with the power to end it all<em>, Lance found that sword, the very same sword that king Arthur himself wielded in the legends of the knights of the round table."  
>"Excalibur," whispered Annabeth fearing that all of this new-found information was going to give make her collapse or something.<p>

"Excalibur is just one of the names the blade possesses...are you okay?" asked Dakota worriedly as Annabeth turned pale, "If anything happens to you, Percy will hate me."

"Camp half-blood needs to find out about this," muttered Annabeth as Percy dodged a drakon's claw and summoned a huge tidal wave from riptide to send the drakon flying into the arena wall.

The two other drakon's attempted to injure Lance but none of the attacks reached him, as though some invisible force field protected him. Lance calmly lifted a hand and waved at one of the dragons which seemed to grow old and vanish.

"How did he?"

"No idea," replied Dakota, "he started manipulating time a few weeks after Saturn/Cronos was defeated but he's also an idiot, the injuries he received from Mars can't be healed therefore he was banned from using Cronos's abilities as they place a heavy strain on his body."

No sooner had Dakota stated that fact, that lance fell on his knees and began breathing heavily. The remaining drakon in front of him advanced towards him and opened its mouth, breathing out crimson flames but a wall of water blocked the flames.

"You okay?" asked Percy who had already managed to slay his own dragon.

"I'll live," replied lance as Percy jumped high into the air and created a solid hammer made out of water.

He slammed the drakon across the back, the weight of the blow cracking the floor but the drakon remained unharmed. The drakon lunged towards Percy who landed on the grounded and cart wheeled out of the way before creating a bow made out of water and shooting an infinite amount of water arrows at the drakon. The arrows bounced harmlessly off the dragon and Percy angrily summoned the water around him which began spinning violently around riptide turning riptide into a trident. Percy then spun the trident in an arc and slammed it into the drakon which exploded in a vibrant display of dust and sea water.

"There," said Percy, "all done."

The crowd cheered and Annabeth stared in awe at how amazing Percy had become even without the curse of Achilles to protect him. Sloan on the other hand wasn't as happy and jumped down onto the arena floor wielding two black blades made out of stygian iron just like Nico Di Angelo's sword.

"It's over Sloan, give up now and Lupa might go easy on you," said Percy smugly, hoping that Lupa would decapitate the idiot as soon as she arrived.

"I did everything you ordered," muttered Sloan, talking to himself, "with the power I borrowed from you, I did everything."

The air became cold and dangerous and Percy's water instantly froze over as a blizzard materialized itself at the centre of the arena.

"Do not worry," came a voice which echoed throughout the blizzard, "The earth isn't angry with you, as one of the seven chosen to stop the giants, you joining our cause is enough to defeat the gods, that's if the unclaimed demigod from the second great prophecy doesn't wipe them out first."

The voice in the blizzard laughed, a chilling laugh scarier than anything Percy had ever heard.

"Now come, Sloan," said the voice as Percy, blinded by the blizzard was unable to see anything.

Lance stood up painfully and closed his eyes as a sword appeared in his hand. A weapon greater than any demigod weapon ever created, a weapon as ancient as the gods capable of matching the might of the Master bolt itself, Excalibur. Although Lance himself never called it Excalibur, after all that was the name which king Arthur had given the sword, a fake name which held back the sword's true power.

"Tyrfing," whispered lance as the sword glowed in approval of its real name.

Lance pointed his sword at the sky and slashed downwards. The blizzard immediately stopped and a beautiful woman, blue skinned and dressed in elegant clothes stood in front of lance and exploded into huge pieces of ice.

"No, Khione," shouted Sloan as those under his control began returning to normal, "what have you done?"

Sloan shadow travelled appearing behind lance and lifting his blades to deliver a killing blow but lance merely smiled as his weapon disappeared. Annabeth wondered if this was because of lance's 'forcefield' or it was because of something else.

The blades hit, striking something huge, white, furry and most of all, angry.

"You dare raise your blades against _him_," growled Lupa as Annabeth heard Lupa's voice in her head and figured that everyone else could too.

"You shall be dealt with when the time is right," growled Lupa, "You will regret ever thinking of betraying your brethren, I will force you to fight in this arena until your body rots away into nothingness."

Sloan stepped backwards in fear and Lupa ordered "Take him away, the rest of you leave."

Two demigods grabbed Sloan and dragged him away. Percy found it funny that Sloan didn't even try to escape as Lupa called down Annabeth, Dakota and a girl named Reyna who had been silently enjoying the show.

"Mum, are you sure you weren't too harsh on him?" asked Lance.

Lupa growled at lance, as though even if he was her favourite along with Jason, he still was not allowed to question her.

"All five of you come," said Luna, speaking into their minds again, "the gods approach and we must be ready."

"You sound worried," replied Lance realising that Lupa was hiding something from him, "what's happened?"

Lupa sat down and simply replied, "Camp half-blood is no more."


	4. The Oracle

**The Oracle**

Lupa sat on a golden throne decorated with countless pearls and rubies. Around her stood 6 demigods whom Lupa had personally summoned. The demigods stood in front of a lake at the centre of an eerie forest and Annabeth could sense a slight tension in the air as though something really interesting was going to happen. After all, Lupa had summoned them to this forest after listening to Annabeth's tales of camp half-blood as well as Jason's quest which the she wolf had found quite surprising. After speaking of Jason, Annabeth had been instructed to remain silent as the demigods awaited the arrival of their 'oracle'.

"So, how was everyone doing at camp after I vanished, bet it wasn't easy for them to cope without my amazing good looks, my genius, my−"

"−Shut up, Percy," cut in Annabeth as she hugged him tightly.

"Geez, get a room," muttered a girl named Reyna.

She had long, shoulder length hair the colour of storm clouds and her eyes were as dark as a crow's feathers. She was dressed from head to toe in roman battle armour and wore a silver, star shaped medallion around her neck. From what Percy had explained to Annabeth, Reyna was a daughter of Mars/Ares and was one of the seven chosen demigods of the third great prophecy along with Sloan, a son of Pluto/Hades and finally Dakota, a daughter of Mercury/Hermes.

"What's your problem with me?" asked Annabeth angrily as Reyna glared at her menacingly.

"Only those who hold the rank of _primuspilus_, centurion of the 12 legions are allowed to enter this place, you're not even one of us and already Lupa finds herself bending the rules to favour an _outsider_."

"Bending the rules," repeated Percy angrily, "Annabeth is my girlfriend, she also happens to be the person who co-commanded the Greek demigods in our fight against Cronos and was even chosen by the gods to redesign mount Olympus."

"As if I care about all of that," screeched Reyna, "she could barely defeat a horde of hellhounds on her own, if the co-commander of the Greek demigods is this weak, then it's no surprised that your camp was wiped out."

Annabeth's fist moved before she was even aware of it and struck Reyna cleanly on her cheek. Reyna took a step backwards and felt blood trickling from the side of her lip.

"I didn't mean to−" began Annabeth apologetically but Reyna cut in, "−how dare you!"

Reyna sent a hand flying towards her medallion and Lupa growled, a warning not to attack Annabeth. Reyna cursed under her breath and walked away from Annabeth to sit next to Sloan who sat by the lake and whom Lupa had given permission to come with them for the time being.

"I didn't mean to hit her, I−"

"−it's okay," replied Percy, "Reyna's taken worse, but I want you to apologize to her as soon as we leave this place," added Percy with a tone of urgency in his voice.

"Why? What's wrong?" asked Annabeth.

"In Rome, once a centurion gives out an order, the legions of Rome usually move to execute the order unless another centurion orders the legions not do so and you should also know that all of us gathered here except you hold the rank of centurion, so if I'm not around Sloan and Reyna could replay the whole coliseum scene."

"I'm not afraid of them," replied Annabeth confidently, "I have you to protect me in case anything happens."

Percy smiled in response to her comment and the two hugged each other in silence as a pretty Mexican looking girl appeared out of nowhere in front of the lake. She wore a stylish fleece jacket and also wore a pair of dark jeans. Her face was covered with make-up and her hair had a somewhat purple like colour.

"I'm here," said the girl excitedly to Lupa who growled at her.

"Can't I keep it on this time? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?" the girl asked as Lupa growled a little louder than before.

"Fine," replied the girl as she tied her hair back in a ponytail and splashed water across her face to remove the make-up.

"Happy?" the girl asked Lupa who nodded agreeably.

"That's Meredith," Percy told Annabeth, "she's our oracle."

There were two things which immediately angered Annabeth as Percy said those words. One, Percy said the name Meredith with such kindness and passion that Annabeth was immediately jealous of the girl. True, Meredith was pretty, even prettier with all of that make-up off her face but that was no reason for Percy along with lance and Sloan to stare at her as though she were Aphrodite. Two, Percy had spoken about Meredith, saying 'she's _our_ oracle,' but the oracle of camp half-blood was Rachel Elizabeth Dare and not this Meredith girl. Lupa spoke in the minds of the demigods telling them to stand directly in front of the lake as Meredith jumped into the lake. The demigods stood motionless for a moment, staring at the blank surface of the lake and staring at Meredith underwater who opened her mouth. A green, vapour like substance exited her mouth, staining the colour of the lake with a light green colour.

"Is she alright?" asked Annabeth breaking the silence as Percy gestured for her to be quiet.

A few seconds later, images of camp half-blood appeared over the lake. Pictures of Leo and the rest of the Hephaestus cabin covered in grease and soot, staring at the completed Argo II ship. The image changed to that of Piper teaching drew how to act, _weird _thought Annabeth as the image changed again to piper hugging Jason. Reyna unintentionally let out a slight squeal and clenched her fist angrily, causing Annabeth to wonder if there had been something between her and Jason. The images began changing faster than ever, replacing the happy images of camp half-blood with images of death and destruction. Monsters of all sizes destroying the cabins built to honour the gods, demigods running into the forest towards the bunker within which sat the Argo ship. Images of Chiron, Jason, Leo and other campers attempting their best to fight off the army of invading monsters. An image of Thalia leading the hunters of Artemis against the demigods shocked Annabeth as well as Percy and the images vanished, returning the lake to its former green colour.

"And now, for events which have yet to come," spoke a voice in Annabeth's thoughts which startled her.

This voice sounded old and snakelike, the voice a snake would have if it could speak.

The images reappeared this time showing Lance and Percy fighting off a dozen snake like creatures, before showing an image of Lance, Percy, Dakota, Sloan, Reyna, Annabeth and Meredith heading out of the roman camp towards an unknown destination. The next image frightened Annabeth the most. It was an image of lance pointing his sword at a goddess with Annabeth trying to protect the goddess.

_Athena _thought Annabeth.

The next image was as shocking as the previous one. It showed Percy impaling riptide into lance's chest. The image was met with a series of gasps from the demigods as the image changed again and showed Reyna protecting an injured Jason from the Hunters of Artemis followed by Sloan standing behind Dakota who tightly clutched Lance's lifeless body. The final image was an image which Annabeth knew she would never forget. It was an image of a hooded figure, pointing Excalibur at Zeus himself. Standing behind the figure stood 11 other figures, other demigods from both camps whose faces were hidden as though their identities were foreever changing, but one demigod's face wasn't hidden revealing the scar across his eye which he despised so much, the face of Luke Castellan wielding his sword Backbiter.

Annabeth sobbed at the sight of Luke's face as the water returned to normal and Meredith climbed out of the lake, soaked from head to toe.

"From what you've seen, it's obvious that camp half-blood was attacked and that some of the demigods survived," she said quickly pausing to catch her breath, "as for what happens, I believe each of us is going to go on a quest together."

"And Percy's going to kill Lance," laughed Sloan as Lupa growled, a hesitant growl as though she too was confused by what she'd seen.

"I'd never do anything to hurt Lance, that part can't be true," said Percy defensively.

"I showed you the future," replied Meredith, "I don't know what leads you to turn against Lance, but I know that this is the future we are heading towards at this very moment."

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, a silence which was broken only by the sound of lance's voices, "the future isn't set in stone," he said, "it can always be changed."

The others agreed as Meredith added, "that final scene in which that hooded demigod has your sword pointed at Zeus/Jupiter is strange and the other demigods who choose to help him haven't been decided yet except for one, that guy with the scar across his face."

"But that doesn't make sense," said Percy, "the guy with the scar across his face is Luke who led Cronos's Armies to war against mount Olympus a few months ago, he also became Cronos's vessel but in the end, he killed himself stopping Cronos's plans and saving mount Olympus."

"Are you sure the images we saw were correct, you sure you didn't mess it up again?" asked Dakota playfully.  
>"Yes, I'm sure," replied Meredith slightly annoyed as Lupa leapt off her thrown and spoke in their minds again.<p>

"In any case, return to camp and rest, all of you, except you Sloan, head to the arena," she said before adding, "Perseus, Lance come to see me as soon as you return to camp."

There a sense of urgency in the way she spoke as she disappeared into the forest, leaving a white trail of light in the air. The roman camp was just a few miles away and Annabeth wasn't looking forward to the long walk back, thankfully Dakota was with them. From what Dakota had told Annabeth, Dakota was born with the rare ability to teleport to whatever location she'd already visited once every few hours, although teleporting too far with a large number of people proved too strenuous for her, almost killing her when she'd done so during lance's fight against Mars.

"Let's get going," said Dakota bored as Lance, Percy, Meredith and Annabeth formed a circle around her.

"You coming?" Dakota asked Reyna who muttered something about needing to be left alone and left with Sloan, "what's her problem?"

"Doesn't matter," replied Meredith, "I'm outside without make-up and we need to remedy that immediately."

Annabeth noticed that Meredith acted calm and composed whenever Lupa was around and reverted to her normal, Drew-like behaviour as soon as the she wolf vanished. Dakota laughed at Meredith's words and teleported the group back to camp. They appeared at the centre of the camp surrounded by gigantic tents which served the same purpose as the cabins at camp half-blood, but were currently being destroyed by tons of snake like creatures, roman demigods trying to fight off these creatures but they seemed impervious to imperial gold, the material which all roman weapons was created off. Almost immediately, Percy drew riptide and Lance drew Excalibur. They both ran towards the snake like creatures and attacked in perfect symmetry, mirroring each other blow for blow. Percy stabbed riptide into the floor and water soldiers, armed with water blades and shields began decapitating the creatures at an alarming rate.

"Show off," shouted Lance as he waved his hand towards a group of these creatures and they each immediately began aging, before turning into dust.

Lance almost fell forward but he impaled his sword in the ground and used it as support to lean against.

"That's what happens when you try to keep up with me," joked Percy as the snake like creatures began reforming and growing slightly larger than before.

They made their way towards Lance and Percy, ignoring the other demigods completely as though attacking the camp had been a plan to root out the two demigods. The snake creatures completely surrounded Percy and Lance as Lance removed his sword from the ground and adapted a battle stance.

"What now?" asked lance standing back to back against Percy.

"We pray that Lupa gets here before we get eaten," replied Percy jokingly, silently hoping that Lupa would indeed arrive.

It was then that Annabeth remembered the image she'd seen in the lake of Percy and Lance fighting off a dozen of these creatures and understood with a slight fright that the future could not be changed and that Percy Jackson would indeed murder Lance, the unclaimed demigod.


	5. Rome

**Rome**

Lance and Percy stood back to back, surrounded by countless snake-like creatures, each the size of a truck. Originally, Percy and lance had each defeated a good portion of these creatures, but no matter how many of them were defeated, their injuries would vanish and the creatures themselves would grow in size.

"Well," muttered lance.

"Well what?" replied Percy as he sent a kick flying towards one of the snakes.

"You're one of the seven of the 3rd great prophecy as well as being the son of Poseidon, so shouldn't you be able to get rid of these yourself?"

"You're a time manipulating demigod with the power to kill immortals and with a sword as ancient as the gods, so out of the two of us I think I should be the one complaining at you," replied Percy as he closed his eyes and stabbed riptide into the ground, willing every last drop of water in the ground to rise.

Water erupted from the ground and immediately flew into riptide, the sword quickly absorbing the water as though it were a sponge. Percy then grabbed riptide and threw it high into the air.

"What are you doing?" asked lance confused.

"I'm being smart," replied Percy with a smile as the water located inside riptide was released in the air turning into solid water spears.

Annabeth watched as the spears rained down onto the snakes, killing them for the time being, but what Percy had done had only slowed down the snake's relentless attacks, if not made it worse.

As well as that, the fact that these snakes were impervious to imperial gold meant that none of the weapons the roman demigods currently wielded could help, meaning that Annabeth herself would be unable to join the fight.

"Percy said you were co-commander of the Greek demigods right?" asked Dakota, bored as though the snakes attacking her camp didn't bother her at all.

"Yes, I lead our demigods along with Percy," replied Annabeth.

"Then order us around," said Dakota, "I'm only 13 and I was only promoted to the rank of centurion because I happened to be one of the seven of the 3rd great prophecy, so I'm no good at giving orders."

"I can't do something like that," replied Annabeth, "I'm an outsider here, meaning in terms of military rank I'm below everyone else, meaning I doubt anyone would even listen to me."

"Look, our smartest child of Minerva died on a quest a few months ago and ever since then, the children of Minerva we have have been less like children of Minerva and more like children of Mars, so the way I see it, you're currently the smartest person here and if you don't help us out, Percy and lance are going to die."

Annabeth stared at Lance and Percy, Lance currently yelling at Percy angrily for the fact that Percy's water spears had only made the snakes stronger.

"Fine, I'll do it," replied Annabeth as Dakota shouted as loud as she could, "Legions of Rome, until this threat to our camp is thwarted, you are all under the direct command of Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"No way," shouted one of the demigods.

"She's an outsider," said another.

Dakota clenched her fist and replied, "I have given you all a direct order as a Centurion of the roman legions, will you disobey a direct command from a superior knowing that I will send you to the coliseum and personally beat the snot out of you."

The demigods shook their heads in silence.

"Good," replied Dakota with a sinister smile, "they're all yours Annabeth."

Annabeth made a mental note to never get on Dakota's bad side before analysing the situation at hand.

"First of all, if imperial Gold can't hurt these things, Dakota head over to the arena and get Sloan over here as quickly as possible."

"That's right, his blades are made out of stygian iron," realised Dakota as she disappeared into thin air.

"Now Lance and Percy, I need you both to clear a path for yourselves and get over here now, as soon as you do that the rest of the demigods will surround the snakes and stop them from spreading around the camp and you there," Annabeth pointed at one of the demigods, "I need to know exactly how these things entered the camp."  
>"It was weird," replied the demigod, "since nothing should be able to get past the camp's defensive barrier, anyways someone threw a ball into the air and these tiny snakes burst out of the ball, we stepped on them and they grew bigger so we did it again, and again−"<p>

"−I get it," replied Annabeth hurriedly as the demigods surrounded the snakes with their shields, the snakes trying their best to break through the wall of demigods and attack Lance and Percy.

"Nice tactics," said Percy, "what do you want us to do now?"

"Percy, I need you to take care of any of the snakes which get past the other demigods, even if the snakes grow bigger."

"Got it," replied Percy as he ran off to help the others.

"As for you Lance," began Annabeth, "I think you should rest for a while."

"Rest?" repeated Lance, "I'm one of the only few guys here capable of killing these things and you want me to rest?"

"Yes," replied Annabeth as she placed a hand on his shoulder, "I've had my eye on you since I first saw you and from what I've noticed, it seems as though even taking a step forward is a monumental effort for you."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I do," replied Annabeth, "you're under an excruciating amount of pain every single minute of every day, the others don't seem to notice it but anyone looking carefully enough would easily be able to notice."

Lance didn't reply and instead quietly stared at the ground. Annabeth then turned around but Lance tightly grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"Swear on the styx."

"What?"

"Swear on the river styx that you won't tell anyone about my current physical condition."

"I, I swear on the river styx," replied Annabeth as lightning tore through the sky, only to disappear seconds later.

Lance then released Annabeth and sat down on the ground, watching his fellow campers attempt their best to fight off the snakes, but this was a losing battle as the snakes easily tore through the wall of tired demigods in front of them. Lance was just about to stand again, when Dakota appeared in front of him along with Sloan who seemed uninjured even though he'd just thought at the coliseum. Sloan quickly saw the snakes and charged at them, his blades sucking the essence of the snakes thus stopping the snake's revival process. One of the snakes lunged at Sloan but Sloan sunk into a nearby snake's shadow, causing the snake which had previously attacked him to attack another snake instead, killing that snake and turning it into an even bigger snake. Sloan then jumped out of the shadow and carried on slashing, cutting and piercing the snakes, moving as smoothly as a ghost. Annabeth momentarily wondered why Sloan had attempted to betray the roman demigods and why he had accepted to help fight off the snakes, but she quickly shrugged off the thought as Sloan finished off the last of the snakes.

"And that's what I call a job well done," said Sloan, as the other demigods picked him up on their shoulders and cheered him on.

"Well," said Percy as he walked over towards Lance, "guess we weren't needed."

"Yeah," replied Lance truthfully.

Annabeth silently agreed with Percy's comment as she noticed Dakota staring at storm clouds approaching in the distance. Dakota then disappeared into this air and returned seconds later with Meredith.

"You can't drag me out here whilst I'm putting lipstick on, applying lipstick to your lips is a very delicate process," complained Meredith as Dakota pointed at the clouds.

Meredith took one look at the clouds and gasped in shock before nodding at Dakota, the two disappearing seconds later.

Annabeth couldn't quite understand why Meredith had seemed so worried but shrugged away the thought as Percy walked over to her and hugged her.

"You know it's you they should all be carrying on their shoulders," Percy whispered in her ear.

"I didn't do anything."

"Of course you did," replied Percy, "being in charge suits you, in fact I want to speak to Lupa about this, I want you promoted to centurion."

"Percy," sighed Annabeth, "I only arrived here this morning and besides, I'm not part of this camp."

"You might as well be, it's not like we any smart children of Minerva here."

_Again _thought Annabeth, _he says 'we' as though he's actually part of this camp_.

"Listen Percy, I belong to camp half-blood and so do you, I mean look at this place, it's all about honour and discipline, I mean this place even encourages gladiator fights against monsters and other demigods, we don't belong here."

"Look Annabeth, when I first came here I couldn't remember a thing and the Romans weren't particularly nice, but I thought alongside them, learned from them, even ended up getting promoted to centurion−"

"−but don't you miss the others, Tyson, Grover, Nico, Chiron, your mother."

"I do miss them," replied Percy, "but it's you I missed the most and you're here now, besides it's not as if I'm never going to see the others again."

"But you'd still rather stay here?"

"Well...Yes," hesitated Percy.

Annabeth balled her fist and thought back tears.

"You're not a Roman, you're a Greek, Romans are savages, conquerors."

"Well, maybe if camp half-blood had been a little like them, we wouldn't have lost so many demigods in our fight against Cronos, maybe we'd have realised sooner rather than later that Luke was using Selena to spy on us, In fact maybe Charles and Selena would still be alive right now and maybe then, I'd have the courage to kill Luke _before_ he became Cronos."

Annabeth stared at Percy in shock and tears began flowing from her eyes. She wouldn't what Percy had had to endure to change this much and speak the way he now spoke. He was no longer the kind, often stupid, loveable son of Poseidon she had fallen in love with, instead he had become the fierce and disciplined son of Neptune, a roman demigod whom she did not recognise.

"Annabeth I−"

"−Save it," cut it Annabeth, "I don't even know who you are anymore."

Percy reached out to hug her but Annabeth pushed him away and walked off, a lone Greek demigod surrounded by Romans.

Annabeth walked aimlessly through the roman camp, slightly still in shock because of what Percy had said to her. Eventually Annabeth was tired of walking and sat down on the ground outside a purple coloured tent, she thought of camp half-blood which had been her home for such a long time, destroyed by the gods because of Lance's power. She found herself wondering why Lupa hadn't sent Lance to Zeus since that alone would have stopped the gods from choosing to destroy their children, and then there was Percy, no longer a demigod of camp half-blood but instead willingly choosing the Romans over the Greeks.

_I hate them _thought Annabeth angrily, _I hate all of them._

She was still deep in thought when Meredith and Dakota casually strolled by the tent and noticed her sitting on the ground in tears.

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" asked Dakota as Annabeth shook her head from side to side.

She was angry, angry at each and every single roman demigod blaming them all for the destruction of camp half-blood and the change which had occurred in Percy.

"Take us somewhere private," muttered Meredith before Annabeth could argue as Dakota teleported them into a tent white tent filled with hundreds of pillows. Meredith sat on the biggest pillow she could find and asked Annabeth, "What's wrong?"

Annabeth looked away from her.  
>"You <em>can <em>trust us you know, we're not like the others?" said Dakota as she sat next to Annabeth.

"Does it have something to do with us?" added Dakota as Annabeth shook her head and Dakota breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Is it Percy?" asked Meredith, "I mean you were sat there crying and he wasn't even anywhere near you."

Annabeth hesitated.

"It is Percy," exclaimed Dakota, "talk to us, come on we can keep a secret or whatever it is you want to say."

Annabeth hesitated again but she wanted to let it all out, her thoughts about Percy, about this camp and she did. Eventually the words simply flowed out of her mouth without her consent, going from talking about Percy to mentioning the fact that she hated the Romans for what Percy had become, she hated Lupa for not sending Lance to Zeus no matter how selfish of her that sounded and even insulting the Romans calling them mindless brutes and conquerors.

"Wow," said Dakota as Annabeth finally finished speaking, "you sure kept a lot of things to yourself."

"I'm sorry if I offended you," replied Annabeth.

"It's okay," muttered Dakota, "plus we have a lot to tell you which is kind of why we wanted to be in private."

Dakota then lay down next to Annabeth and pressed her head against a comfortable pillow.

"Look Annabeth," began Meredith, "when Percy first came here, he was disoriented, he didn't know anyone, didn't remember how old he was or anything like that, the only thing he remembered was your name."

"My name?" Annabeth sounded both shocked and pleased.

"yes, but as I said he knew no one and was an outsider to such a strict military camp, the only thing Percy really had to survive was his wits and battle instincts, in fact Lupa forced him to fight in the arena more times than she'd forced any other demigod to do so, eventually Percy realised that to survive in this camp, he had to try to become as fierce and tough as the other Roman demigods here so he did, he changed as much as he could, accepting any punishment without complaint, accomplishing any order without fail until the day he was promoted to Centurion of our camp,"

"And in this camp, the rules are different to camp half-bloods rules, whilst you have the a head councillor for each cabin, we have the centurions in charge of the entirety of the roman army no matter who their godly parent is, and then we have the chief centurions an honour reserved for demigods who have accomplished a great feat in battle such as Jason, Lance and Sloane."

"Anyways," cut in Dakota, "Percy went on a quest and regained his memory of camp half-blood, he even told us everything about it, from the cabins to the big house to the creepy oracle you used to have, he even told us about how badly he missed being called seaweed brain by a certain daughter of Athena he loved very much."

Annabeth blushed as Meredith took over.

"But over time, I think Percy got used to this camp especially after making friends with the other centurions who in a way were his first real friends at this camp and since he knew about the seven chosen demigods and their fight against the giants, Percy trained day in and day out to uncover the secrets behind his sword riptide and his own godly abilities."

Annabeth let all of that information sink in before mentally scolding herself for judging Percy without hearing about his story first. She wondered how she'd feel if she had no memory of anything she'd done in the past and was sent to live here amongst the Romans.

"And now to tell you a little bit about us Romans whom you hate so much," said Dakota, "we Romans fight at the arena from the day we arrive here, the fight usually last hours and considering we don't know how to fight on our first day, we always get badly injured, the next few days after arriving, we are continuously beaten up by various experienced demigods and when I say beaten up, I mean broken arm, leg, rib, cuts and slashes etc, that's all done as a warning to show us what could happen to us if we fail to execute orders."

"Which is why the demigods from earlier immediately followed your orders," muttered Annabeth.

"That's right," replied Dakota, "their fear of me outweighed their disrespect for you, plus getting beaten up by a 13 year old in front of loads of demigods is pretty embarrassing."

"As well as that," said Meredith taking over from where Dakota had left off, "I'd like to say that you probably hate Sloan for what he did to you, but he's been trying to get his father's attention ever since he was a kid but Pluto doesn't care about Sloan, even once stating that claiming him was a mistake."

"That's still no reason to attempt to join up with Khione and Gaia," added Dakota.

"True," replied Meredith, "anyways, next we have Reyna, she was alone for such a long time and didn't speak to any of us, then she befriended Jason and soon they became more than friends and she started making friends and being well, happy but then Juno took Jason away from her and ever since, she's become moody and annoying."

"Kinda like how you must have been when Percy first went missing," said Dakota as Annabeth returned to listening to Meredith.

"Then there's Lance," added Meredith, "he came here a little after Jason and remained unclaimed and since unclaimed demigods are considered unworthy of Rome, Lance got the snot beat out of him worst than anybody, eventually he became friends with Jason but mostly stayed in jason's shadow."

"That all changed when Jason fought the titan Krios, Lance risked his life to save Jason allowing Jason to finally defeat Krios," began Dakota, "then we heard about camp half-blood defeating Cronos and a few weeks later, Apollo and Lupa revealed the 2nd great prophecy to us, but Jupiter discovered the prophecy and feared that the demigod in the prophecy would destroy the Olympians, so when Lance began manipulating time during a quest, Jupiter ordered Lupa to deliver Lance so as to spare the other demigods, of course Lupa refused since Lance is like a son to her so Jupiter ordered the demigods to destroy all of their demigod children because of the fear that we demigods along with lance could take over Olympus, Meredith take over."

"Shortly afterwards Jason and Lance were named Chief Centurions of the camp, a rank which can only be shared by two demigods at the camp, meaning that they are directly underneath Lupa in terms of command, after the ceremony Jason went missing and Lance trained hard in his absence whilst Sloan took over Jason's position, eventually Lance and Dakota went on a quest to find Jason which took weeks but instead, he found the war god Mars, Mars revealed his true godly form but Lance was able to kill him with his bare hands and soon afterwards Lance found the forgotten sword Excalibur, confirming the fact he is the hero of the 2nd Great prophecy, but even with all of this the other demigods here still reluctantly follow his orders and have no respect for him, all because he remains unclaimed, it's really kind of sad."

Annabeth absorbed every last ounce of information which had been given to her by these two Roman demigods and sighed, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" asked Dakota confused.

"For judging you without even getting to know you."

"That's okay," replied Meredith, "but just remember, Lance didn't choose to become Jupiter's number one enemy so try to be nice to him...or else."

Annabeth gave Dakota a confused look and Dakota laughed before saying, "Meredith likes Lance but he hasn't been able to notice the signals."

Meredith blushed and Annabeth replied that she'd keep it a secret from Lance. Annabeth sat with Meredith and Dakota for a couple more minutes talking about boys and even asking Annabeth who was hotter between Lance and Sloan. As they sat, Annabeth realised that she had never sat with other girls to talk about other things than how to kill a dracanae or how to fortify camp half-blood's defences.

"Dakota, can you take me to Percy, I need to apologize to him."

"Sure, bet his fighting at the coliseum, not much else to do at this camp" replied Dakota as the trio instantly appeared at the centre of the coliseum and Dakota immediately screamed at the sight in front of her.

Sloan lay on his back on the ground in a pool of blood with Reyna crying over his body. Directly opposite them stood Percy, breathing heavily with a shattered riptide in hand and next to him was lance kneeling on the floor and clutching his stomach tightly.

Annabeth immediately ran towards Percy as Meredith did the same, only running towards Lance.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked Percy who stared at her with a blank expression on his face and collapsed.

"Lance, what's wrong what's happened?" asked Meredith who cursed at the fact that Roman demigods never travelled around with nectar and ambrosia.

"Me..re...dith," Lance managed to say through gritted teeth as he coughed out blood.

Meredith stared in confusion at the Lance's blood, a mixture of red and gold as Lance screamed out, his eyes taking on a golden colour.

**Won't be able to update for about 4-5 days fellow demigods !**


End file.
